UC Browser Review: Optimize Your Browsing Experience

There
are tons of available browsers in the market. Each one has its own loyal followers due to their feature set and affinity to a certain brand. Example,
Chrome is for Google, Safari has Apple, and the list boils down to the best performing browser in the market. If you are still using the stock
browser in your smartphone or still stuck with Chrome or Firefox in your PC, UC
Browser wanted you to upgrade your browsing experience. We tried downloading
the app for iOS and Android and made our own spin with the UC Browser. The details? You could read them right after the fold.

UC Browser Review: User
Interface

First, we
have tested the iOS version of the UC Browser App. And unlike any other
mainstream browsers, I am surprised how nifty its features can get. It runs smooth
and fast; very pleasing to first time users like me. There are also commendable
features that were streamlined only in UC Browser.

Homescreen and Menu

It has the basic feature of
multiple tabs browsing which lets you load considerable number of sites
without getting a big chunk of memory of your device. Accessing the tabs comes in card-like fashion wherein you can just swipe left to close these tabs. It supports multi-touch functions, like swiping down with two fingers adds another tab and swiping two fingers up closes an active tab.It is
also worth noting that the app has a “Find in Page” feature which lets you
search specific words in the page. It's like the CTRL+F function in your PC which is a very useful feature for me.

Find-in-Page Feature and Multiple Tabs

UC
Browser also supports extensions which could give a good grip in user’s
productivity. It also comes with a quick launch button to access full screen
mode which is very appealing if you are video streaming in the browser.
Likewise, you could also bookmark or add your favorite sites to access them in
one tap. There's also a wide range of Themes for you to choose from.

Themes

Overall, the app is clean and offers customizable browsing experience.
However, there are times that the browser does not recognize light taps in the home
screen shortcut apps.

Heavy-user
function: Downloading and Streaming

I
tried hitting UC Browser in Android to experience its downloading capabilities.
For one, I am surprised by its file downloading capabilities.
I could tell that the UC Browser is a great, if not the best, browser for
downloading. In contrast to other browsers like Dolphin and Opera, the UC
Browser supports simultaneous downloads wherein it hosts segmented file
transfer and multi-thread downloading. It divides the whole file into segments
and downloads these segments at the same time in different channels which
maximizes the download efficiency.

The
download manager interface is also clean and minimalist. It curates the
downloaded files in a neat fashion including all your saved pages for offline
reading. Likewise, the browser also shows your download status through a bar
which is quite exceptional. You can also pause and resume
downloads at your convenience.

Overall,
download speed is quite fast. I could say that UC Browser has the faster
downloading capability in a mobile browser space. Simultaneous downloads are quite
exceptional without sacrificing page loads speed.

Streaming
videos in UC Browser is also a breath of fresh air. Video rendering is smooth
even when played in high quality content. The video streaming interface is also
straightforward. It comes with very basic and minimalist playback menus which
includes pause, play, seek and time display. The volume control and full screen
toggle are also very handy. Unlike other HTML5 web browsers, it could handle
many video formats.

Facebook and other Social Media sites

What
I like about the browser is that it is "social media-browsing friendly". You can also
take advantage of the full screen mode for an immersive Facebook experience. If
you are using the Android version of the app, things get nifty with the fact
that the browser comes with optimized features for Facebook. When you log-in using Facebook in UC Browser, you can get Facebook updates on your phone's notification center.
Likewise, managing your Facebook account is also a walk in the park due to the
fact that you can do the basic stuff like updating status, sharing photos and
sending messages in your notification bar.

The
Wrap

UC
Browser is no doubt one of the powerful contenders around. It comes with great
features that each user needs. If you are in the market for an
ultimate browsing experience wherein you could save bookmarks, save data usage and
customize your online tasks, UC Browser is a great app to start with.

Pinoy Metro Geek is a PCB-SiP Package Design Layout Engineer by day and a Tech Blog Power Ranger by night. He juggles his interests in gadgets, travel and music. He likes to do all his techie stuff with his cup of coffee.